


I'll Take You to the Dark Side

by vampcoffeegyrl23



Series: Snowells Week 2020 [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Day 2, F/M, Horror AU, Penny Dreadful - Freeform, Penny Dreadful AU, SnowHarry, Snowells Week 2020, Tumblr: snowellsweek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24750223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampcoffeegyrl23/pseuds/vampcoffeegyrl23
Summary: Snowells Week Day 2 Harry/Caitlin Gothic Horror AU loosely based on the premise of the show Penny Dreadful. Dr. Caitlin Snow has always had her demons, her issues, her tragic past. But when those demons come back to haunt her and a dear childhood family friend’s life is threatened, she’ll stop at nothing to fight back and protect that with which she loves. Even if it means facing everything she’s run away from, including the one she can never have.
Relationships: Caitlin Snow/Earth-2 Harrison "Harry" Wells
Series: Snowells Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1788433
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: We're A Team Right?





	1. My Mind's Like a Deadly Disease

**Author's Note:**

> While this storyline is somewhat based on the plot of Penny Dreadful, our characters are still Flash characters and you won’t have to have watched Penny Dreadful to know what’s going on. All you’ll really need to know is that the time period is a bit different, like closer to Victorian England times just sorta in America. Also, this is still a WIP, so I just have a prologue and chapter one finished so far. But the plan is to keep going on it even after Snowells Week. Overall title comes from the song “Everything Black” by Unlike Pluto. Prologue title from the song “Control” by Halsey.

**“I have run from the darkness for so long, to find myself in a place darker still.”**

**Vanessa Ives, as portrayed by Eva Green, in** **_Penny Dreadful_ **

Prologue: My Mind's Like a Deadly Disease

The moment she awoke from her latest nightmare, she knew without question that she had to go to him at once. She lay there wide eyed in a cold sweat, an icy smoke rising around the bed as if the arctic had made its way inside her bedroom over night. The ice was nothing new, her demons had manifested in ice and cold and snow since before she’d begun adolescence. No one had ever been able to explain it, beyond a threatening label of _“witchcraft”_ or _“sorcery”_ or even _“hallucination”_ or _“hysterics”_ despite the fact that everyone around her could see the frosty physical results of her outbursts. Something she needed to resist or control as if she had any sway over the cold within her as much as she did the color of her eyes or the long length of her legs.

No, what was new was this particular nightmare, as opposed to the other abysmal images that typically plagued her restless sleep. The dark shadows, the blue lightning, the looming dark figure, the disjointed voice, the girl trapped in a rusty metal cage crying out for help . . .

It was Jesse - Jessica Chambers Wells. The girl had only been a child the last time that Caitlin had seen her before she’d fled the oppression of her childhood home to pursue science and medicine. The Snow, West, and Wells families had always been close both in the neighborhood that they lived and the time they all spent together. Being several years younger, Jesse had followed teenage Caitlin and her similarly aged best friend Iris West around like a shadow. All three of them avoided Iris’s annoying little brother Wally, and all four children frequently played pranks on each other. Both Caitlin and Iris doted on the younger girl as if she were a little sibling, though Caitlin tended to mother Jesse more than anything. Having lost her own mother as an infant, Jesse relished in the attention. 

Caitlin had regretted losing touch with Jesse when she left for her schooling, but the pains of her past had become too much to bear after the fallout of her friendship with Iris. That had been entirely Caitlin’s fault, and a continued source of her guilt even into adulthood. All three families drifted apart, and the death of young Wally had only solidified it. The years since had not been kind, if not unnecessarily cruel, and Caitlin had honestly not thought much of young Jesse in so long.

But if the shiver down her spine, the cold smoke around her bed, the cool touch of her skin, and the racing of her heart were any indication, it would seem that Jesse Wells, now a young teen, was in danger. Caitlin had learned to trust the more foretelling of her nightmares and dreams before, and now was not the time to begin distrusting them. Not when so much was at stake.

So she’d dragged herself out of bed, ignoring the chilled aches in her bones and the sluggish blood in her veins that she’d been plagued with for years. She ate, dressed, consulted her tarot cards, said her morning prayers, and then made her way out of the city and back to her childhood small town. 

There she stood days later, in the dark in the pouring rain, pounding on the doorstep of a man she’d been avoiding for all of her adult life. A man who’d known her since she was a small girl herself, whom she’d referred to as ‘uncle’ though he was of no blood relation to her and was only a handful of years older than her. A man who knew what she’d done, and how it had torn their family friendships apart. A man whom her teenage self had stopped seeing as family, and instead as a possible suitor. A crush, a dark infatuation that nearly led to her ruin.

The rain continued to drench her when the door opened abruptly and his steel blue eyes locked with hers. A scowl twisted on his lips as he ran his hands through his hair and he looked her up and down. 

“Our Jesse’s in trouble, Harry.” Caitlin simply said, her arms wrapped around herself to stave off the chill even as cold smoke wafted out from under her coat. “Will you let me in?”

_to be continued . . ._


	2. I Missed You More Than I Thought I Would

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from the song "I Found" by Amber Run.

Chapter One: I Missed You More Than I Thought I Would

If someone had asked her even five years earlier if she thought she’d be back in the Wells home with a blanket wrapped around her soaking wet self watching Dr. Harrison Wells shift uncomfortably where he stood in front of her, she would have never believed it. Never in a million years. Yet here she was, shivering, with Harry’s piercing gaze boring into her from across the room. 

“I’m sorry, Harry, I would’ve never come if it wasn’t important.” She mumbled, gripping the hot cup of tea he’d made for her. Somehow he still remembered exactly how she took her tea, which both comforted and upset her all at the same time.

“Then why are you here, Snow?” His tone was neutral, though the look on his face was anything but. ‘Snow’ - which is how he had always addressed her, instead of by her name. 

She trembled under his gaze, blushing, as affected by him now as she had when she was a teen. “It’s Dr. Snow now, actually.” 

“So you did get your doctorate. I knew it had always been your dream, to follow in your father’s footsteps.” Harry mused.

“I did. As well as two phd’s. I mean, it’s no seven . . .” She looked down.

“No, that’s . . . that’s quite impressive. Still quite the feat, given today’s social climate. I always knew you’d do great things.” Harry nodded affectionately. “But you didn’t come here to discuss your education.” She took another sip of tea, relishing in the warm liquid thawing her from the inside out. “What do you know? About Jesse?” When his daughter’s name left his lips, it was as if he were sending out a desperate prayer into the air.

Her hands trembled, shaking the cup in her hand. The rest of her tea froze solid and she swallowed deeply, frowning as she set it down on the table in front of her. “So then something is wrong then, yes?” 

If he noticed the ice, Harry didn’t give up his reaction. Instead his lips tightened, his eyes focused on the wall beside him. His hands balled into fists, clenching forcefully. He lifted his head then to look straight at her, moisture in the corners of his eyes. His voice cracked when he spoke. “She’s gone. I d-don’t . . . Snow, I--But how--”

She hesitated, her insides twisting at the sight of his broken face. “You won’t believe me. Even if I were to tell you everything. I just know, Jesse’s in danger.” 

“You know me less than you think you do.” Harry shook his head, almost sighing. “It’s been a long time. We’ve lived different lives. We’re different people. If you know something about where Jesse is, I deserve to know.”

“It’s not exactly an exact where, per se.” Caitlin shrugged off the blanket, taking a deep breath. The ice in her veins throbbed, pain radiating throughout her limbs. “And, you’re right that we’re not the same people. You must’ve suspected I was never exactly the most normal back then. Even as much as my mother tried to convince me - and everyone else - otherwise.”

“Carla was always as headstrong as she was, despite your father’s efforts to calm her down.” Harry mused. 

“And she only got worse after he died.” Caitlin nodded. “When I left home after . . . well, after everything, I started to be plagued by what I’ve come to refer to as ‘demons.’ Nightmares, moodswings - most often, fits of rage. But the most troubling was the numbing cold. I’d begun some of it as a child, but everyone just thought I was always cold because I had poor circulation. Reaching adolescence only seemed to make it worse. It's like a cold chill, deep in my bones, that just doesn’t go away. It surges painfully through my veins as if my blood were made of ice. But that’s not all . . .” She held out her hand, a steady stream of cold fog rising from it. The stream shot out like a bullet, coating the top of the coffee table with thick solid ice.

Harry blinked, backing away. Then he leaned down to study the ice, holding his hand over it. When his skin made contact with the cold surface, he jerked it back, finding the tip of his finger frozen.

“I tried everything I could think of to make it stop, combing my brain through every sort of medicine and procedure I learned. I went to all the professors, the other doctors. None of them had any insight. I took time away from my practice, studied under a witch and medium named Rachel Rosso. She taught me all sorts of things, spells and tarot and the like. It helped, for a while. From there I turned to prayer, hoping that strengthening my faith might give me peace.”

“I never saw you as one for religion. Even as a girl, you drove your mother mad questioning the priests on every bit of scripture.” Harry mused.

“Even still, God and I have a complicated relationship. And still, the demons within me give me no rest. I went to my mother when I didn’t know what to do anymore and . . . she sent me to one of my father’s colleagues at the asylum. They tried to fix me, but it wasn’t working and it only becomes more difficult to control as I get older. I managed to convince both my mother and the doctors that it was better just to get out of that awful place, but it’s far from. The more my emotions heighten, the more I give in to them, the darkness leaks out, and the ice takes over. But the worst is the nightmares, haunting me now whether at night while I sleep or in the day in my weakest moments.”

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that, and still now.” He shook his head, but then his eyes widened. “You’ve seen my Jesse. That’s why you’re here. My Jesse was taken, and you’ve seen who has her.”

“I’ve seen glimpses, yes.” Caitlin gulped. “But you took all of that much better than I thought you would. You’re not afraid of me? You believe me?”

“Snow, I’ve traveled the world a dozen times over. Researching and discovering for my experiments and inventions for Star Labs.” Harry said. “I’ve seen a great many things along the way, things most people would likely throw me in an asylum for as well for repeating. Our lives, here, where we know it, are so very close-minded compared to the rest of the world out there.”

“I’ve come to find that out.” Caitlin sighed. She held out her trembling hand, shaking it as tendrils of cold smoke floated from her fingertips. She closed her eyes, shaking it again and wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m sorry . . .” She bit her bottom lip, feeling the tears in the corners of her eyes. 

“Hey, look at me. Snow!” 

She opened her eyes as she felt the couch on either side of her sink down, finding Harry kneeling on the ground in front of her with his hands on the couch. “No, don’t touch me!” She tried to scoot back, but he surrounded her on all sides. 

“It’s okay.” Harry rose to sit beside her, grabbing hold of her arms over her damp sleeves. “Breathe. Control it. You can do it.”

“I can’t.” She gasped, cringing as her breath crystallized in the air between them. She could feel the darkness rising within her, the numbing cold worming its way out from her heart.

“You can. You will. Snow. Caitlin!” He shook her. “You need to focus. Breathe. Where’s Jesse!? Who has her?”

“ _He_ does.” Caitlin stilled, shivering. She stared blankly into Harry’s eyes. “B-blue light. Lightning. Dark. Dark figure. Fast. Cage - Jesse’s in a cage.” The lack of reaction from him took her aback. “But . . . you don’t seem surprised.” 

“I’ve suspected, but didn’t have any concrete proof. At least none that I could follow up on my own.” Harry let go of her arms.

“This dark figure - he’s fast. I could see it in my nightmares.” Caitlin swallowed down her fear. 

“He’s called Zoom.” Harry rose to his feet, one hand rising to his temple to knead the skin there. “There’s been whispers of him for years. Sightings. Legends. A man, no one knows who he truly is or if he’s a man at all. The term ‘speedster’ has been thrown around in the most underground of societies. It’s been suspected there may be more than one, but no one really knows anything for sure.”

“Nobody who’s seen him has ever come back alive.” Caitlin guessed. 

“Exactly.” Harry’s voice cracked as he turned away from her. 

“Why would he take her? Why your Jesse?” Caitlin picked up her cup to take another sip of tea, her insides growing numb from the cold, only to remember the liquid was still frozen. Frowning, she put the cup back down on the table.

“I don’t . . .” Harry shook his head, wiping tears on from his eyes with his sleeves. “I really don’t know, Caitlin.”

Hearing her true name fall off his lips was so foreign to her, it sent a shock down her spine. But she ignored the chill, her legs unsteady as she stumbled over to him. He caught her arms, holding her up, staring down at her in concern. Ice surrounded them in the air like fog. “Harrison, we have to find her. I don’t know how, but I know she’s still alive. She’s counting on us to find her. We have to . . .”

_To Be Continued . . ._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And that’s as far as we go for now, friends. More to come soon, though unsure when.
> 
> P.S. Here's a few of the songs at really helped me get in the right mood to write this. (Other than rewatching Penny Dreadful episodes): 
> 
> Everything Black (Unlike Pluto)  
> Zombie (The Cranberries/Bad Wolves)  
> The Devil Within (Digital Daggers)  
> Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones/Ciara/Vanessa Carlton/Hidden Citizens)  
> Bring Me To Life (Evanescence)  
> Control (Halsey)  
> Gods and Monsters (Lana Del Rey)  
> House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)  
> Take Me Away (Avril Lavigne)  
> I Found (Amber Run)  
> No More Sorrow (Linkin Park)  
> Still Breathing (Green Day)  
> Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) (Eurythmics/Marilyn Manson/Emily Browning)  
> Once Upon A Dream (Lana Del Ray)  
> Roads Untraveled (Linkin Park)  
> Black, Black Heart (David Usher)


End file.
